Explore the Mass Humanities funded projects awarded from 2000 to the present. Browse by grant type, city, region or keyword. Subscribe and receive news when grants are awarded. Interact with a state map of grants awarded!
Odd Couples: Literary Feuds, Friendships and Falling-outs
A four-part reading and discussion group exploring the works of four pairs of authors who were known to have a complicated relationship with one another.
Barnstable, MA, Barnstable County (Cape & Islands)
project director: Antonia Stephens
awarded on: 2013-11-21
amount: $500
City of Lowell Division of Planning & Development Collection
Preservation of the City of Lowell Division of Planning and Development Collection.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Martha Mayo
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $1,500
Whitin Documentary
A pre-production grant to ValleyCAST for a script and trailer for a documentary about the Whitin family's mills in Whitinsville, MA and the employees in this company town.
Whitinsville, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Heather J. Riley
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $10,000
Robbins House Exhibit Planning & Development Grant
Core exhibit planning for the Robbins House, a home built by the son of slavery survivor and Revolutionary War veteran Caesar Robbins in the early 1800s.
Concord, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Linda Ziemba
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Re-Visioning Tomorrow: Emancipation for a New Century
A series of six staged readings of plays from August Wilson's ten-play cycle about the lives of African Americans in the decades of the twentieth century.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Barbara Lewis
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $10,000
Reflections on Race
Support for a script and trailer for a documentary film about the meaning of race in America.
Auburndale, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Gregory Fried
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $10,000
Du Bois in Our Time
Springfield-based programs featuring artists whose new work about the vision of W.E.B. Du Bois will be exhibited at the Umass Amherst Museum of Contemporary Art.
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Eva Fierst
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $7,500
Agreeing to Disagree: Civility in Public Discourse
Three one-hour radio segments taking a look at civility (and the lack thereof) in public discourse.
Albany, NY, Albany County
project director: Joe Donahue
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $10,000
1763 Peace of Paris Project Public Programming
French-Canadian historical re-enactors take part in a public commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the treaty that ended the French and Indian Wars.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Donald C. Carleton
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Carnaval!
An exhibit and programs exploring the history and culture of Carnival in eight communities in Europe and the Americas.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Honee Hess
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Splendid Splitters: Axes, Axemen, and the Building of the USS Constitution
A video installation about how Old Ironsides was built by skilled boatwrights, focusing on the all important axe.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director:
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $3,849
Paul Revere Artisan and Businessman: The Enduring Legacy
Design and fabrication of a display about the varied career and entrepreneurship of Paul Revere.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Nina Zannieri
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Boston Book Festival 2013
Three days of varied programs with multiple literary collaborators including authors of national repute.
Cambridge, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Norah Piehl
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Emilie: The Marquise de Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight
Lee, MA, Berkshire County (Berkshire)
project director: Kristen van Ginhoven
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $9,980
"The American Media Revolution" Archival Collection
An on-line exhibit and archive of images, film clips and sound files related to the early years of WBCN FM in Boston and protest movements on Boston Common.
Melrose, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Bill Lichtenstein
awarded on: 2013-06-21
amount: $5,000
Unlearning the Language of Violence
Community conversations about violence in America by way of a series of public events, lectures, panels, oral history, film, literature, radio interviews or "town meetings," and online outreach.
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Susan Leary
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $10,000
New Voices: Nantucket's Diverse Immigrant Population
A complex and multifaceted oral history project to record the new voices and life histories of recent immigrants to the island.
Nantucket, MA, Nantucket County (Cape & Islands)
project director: Betsy S. Tyler
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
"I Have a Dream": Public Dialogues on the Unfinished Business of Emancipation & Civil Rights
Six public events-in the Berkshires, Roxbury, Cambridge, Medford, Watertown and Worcester-that explore the unfinished business of the Civil War and the civil rights era.
Watertown, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Margo Varea
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $10,000
Harvest of Voices - Cuentos de Lawrence
A community-based oral history/musical theatre project drawn from personal interviews within the Latino community in Lawrence, collected by Spanish-speaking students at Merrimack College, and dramatized by playwright Jose Cruz Gonzalez.
North Andover, MA, Essex County (Northeast)
project director: Joseph Kelley
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
Farenheit 451: "If I had to Choose..." and "Who Gets to Choose..."
Two-months of community programming on the history and contemporary role of censorship in our society, using Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" as the centerpiece.
Fitchburg, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Mary C. Durling
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $10,000
CAM Connections
Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester will bring reproductions of regional landscape paintings from the Museum collection to seniors in care facilities in and around Gloucester, and also to support field trips for these seniors to the museum.
Gloucester, MA, Essex County (Northeast)
project director: Peggy Cahill
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $10,000
Making History on the Commons
The fourth annual history fair on the Boston Common for third and fifth grade students. The fair has grown into an annual collaboration between FPG, the schools, and various history organizations that interpret, re-enact, and engage students in how the Common has been used throughout history.
Boston, MA, Suffolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Elizabeth Vizza
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
Buckman Tavern Self-Guided Audio Tour
A new audio tour for Buckman Tavern, the gathering place for the Lexington militia before they encountered British soldiers in the first battle of the American Revolution.
Lexington, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Alison Falotico
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
Civil War Teacher Training Workshop
A three-day workshop to introduce local teachers to the significant Civil War resources at the Center, and work with them in preparing to create lesson plans on the topic.
Framingham, MA, Middlesex County (Metrowest Boston)
project director: Annie Murphy
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
Roots of Liberty: The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War
Community conversations and other interactive programming around the production of a historical pageant commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The pageant will be focused on the Haitian Revolution (a defining moment in the history of slavery in the Americas) and the larger-than-life figure of Haitian liberator Toussaint Louverture.
Cambridge, MA, Middlesex County (Greater Boston)
project director: Debra Wise
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $24,990
Music for the Soul: Building Community Through Musical Diversity
Four dinner concerts and 10 lunchtime concerts, to be followed by scholar-facilitated discussions at the Center, a community organization that serves homeless and low-income people.
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Bob Weiner
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $2,000
Poetry Lifts Literacy
The introduction of 75 adult basic education students to literature through poetry workshops that will culminate in a reading alongside nationally and regionally known poets at the fourth annual Greenfield Annual Word Festival.
Greenfield, MA, Franklin County (CT Valley)
project director: Judith Roberts
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $8,000
A Legacy of Rural Music, People and Place
A weeklong workshop between beginner musicians from a selection of Hill Towns (Ashfield, Plainfield, Hawley, and Buckland) and mentors conversant in regional folk classics in preparation for storytelling performances.
Easthampton, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Jacqueline Cooper
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $5,000
Hawk Valley Farm - 350th Anniversary of the First Settlement North of the Merrimack River
Research into and documentation of the land use history of Hawk Valley Farm (1664), a five-acre conservation property that is still occupied by the descendants of the settlers.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Jane Calvin
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $3,000
Elizabeth Cadman White
Research into the life of Elizabeth Cadman White (1685-1768), one of the first owners of the 1710 Cadman-White-Handy House, and her social, cultural, economic, and political environment.
Westport, MA, Bristol County (Southeast)
project director: Jenny O'Neill
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $3,000
Academy of Music Play Development
Development of a play that tackles issues in the history of women's work, based on the life of the strong-willed Mildred E. Walker, box office manager at the Academy whose controversial promotion to interim manager became the occasion of a scandal, criminal accusations, and the loss of her job.
Northampton, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Debra J'Anthony
awarded on: 2013-03-15
amount: $2,000
Cataloguing the Paul White Documents
Awarded to catalogue, re-house, and transcribe the "Paul White documents," a group of about fifty documents that date from the 1740's to the early nineteenth century, with an eye towards future public programming.
Ocean Bluff, MA, Plymouth County (Southeast)
project director: Laura Smolcha
awarded on: 2013-01-31
amount: $1,500
Jack Kerouac Reading and Discussion Series
Reading and discussion series focusing on books by Jack Kerouac.
Lowell, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Sara Marks
awarded on: 2012-12-21
amount: $1,000
Art in Words
An after-school reading and visual arts program for middle school students focusing on the connection between the novel Okay for Now by award-winning writer Gary Schmidt and the New Bedford Public Library's unique collection of James Audubon's Birds of America prints.
New Bedford, MA, Bristol County (Southeast)
project director: Jill Horton-Simms
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $10,000
StoriesLive III
A program in which professional Massachusetts storytellers teach 10th, 11th, and 12th graders in 10 Massachusetts high schools the art of personal storytelling while imparting formative public speaking skills and writing strategies. The program culminates in an intramural story slam (with cash prizes).
Brookline, MA, Norfolk County (Greater Boston)
project director: Norah Dooley
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $10,000
Community by Design: The Olmsted Firm and the Development of Brookline, MA
Research, script development, image selection, location scouting, music, and more for a short film on the Olmsted architectural firm's role in shaping the design and urban plan of Brookline, Massachusetts
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Robin Karson
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $5,000
Making Media Now Conference Panel
A panel at the "Making Media Now," conference, that will offer insights and best practices to filmmakers on developing the most productive working relationships between humanities scholars and documentary filmmakers.
Melrose, MA, Middlesex County (Northeast)
project director: Kathryn Dietz
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $1,200
Non-Violent Movements in the Modern World
A 10-session professional development course for 20 teachers to study primary sources and teaching materials on notable nonviolent movements in the modern world.
Worcester, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: Paul S. Ropp
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $10,000
See-Hear-Feel-Film
A program designed for third graders that uses a series of international short films to teach students the power of story, help them gain visual literacy, cultivate the analytical skills necessary for our media culture, and inspire their imaginations. Participants will hail from 66 classes in public schools in underserved districts throughout the Pioneer Valley, including Amherst.
Amherst, MA, Hampshire County (CT Valley)
project director: Jake Meginsky
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $5,000
Photo Digitization and Exhibit
Scanning, inventory, and electronic storage of more than 500 photographs in the Hassanamisco Indian Museum's collection.
South Grafton, MA, Worcester County (Central)
project director: D. Rae Gould
awarded on: 2012-12-14
amount: $1,500